[Harp-L] a lurker's lurker

["Drew Ross" <spiritualpersonality@xxxxxxxxx>]

Iceman asked for us lurkers to say somethin' .... so here goes.
I've been playing harp for a very long time, but only briefly played in a
band way back. I've been playing by myself for years, getting better and
better, but (I like to think) like the oldtimers, I have no idea what I'm
playing in a technical sense. All intuitive, all by feel.

For years, I've wanted to play guitar, so I could play that with the harp.
I've had several starts and stops, and I'm finally getting somewhere.
Learning guitar got me into guitar gear, amps, effects, tone ... and then
into trying to figure out how to amplify the harp, which brought me to this
list.

I thought I'd feel right at home ... but I don't know most of what you are
talking about. I don't know positions, I don't know what chords I play, I've
learned the feel and vibe of the harp part of a song, but I've never tried
to duplicate it note from note, and I've never taken a harp apart, even
though my best one is a Special 20 that must be from about ... '77? All my
old harps sound good to me, and on pitch, I guess because I don't play live,
and although I bend and overblow, I think I play pretty easy compared to
someone in a club.

So, I'm planning to get Harmonica For Dummies, so I can understand the
language that you are speaking.

I don't have any special requests for the list. I haven't tested out my
setup for amplified harp, but I guess I can ask if you think it will work. I
have to tell a story. I live on the Big Island of Hawai'i, which still is
quite rural. Where we live, you haul your trash to a transfer station. Ours,
in Waiea (pronounce the w with a soft v sound), is a simple single chute
deal. Because the Salvation Army is far away, people put things on the side,
by the fence, if they are too good to throw down the chute. Sundays are
usually busy, people lined up waiting their turn, but this one Sunday, I
guess it has been a year and a half, there was no one there, but lots of
stuff, clothes hanging on the fence, stuff on both sides. As I'm backing up
the truck, I see what looks like two suitcases. When I get out, I look down
and one says, "Fender, Fullerton, California." I sent it to Skip Simmons in
Northern California, and it needed a lot of stuff, but it sounds great now.
It is from 1961 and I call it the Dump Champ.
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn282/drewross/DSC_0003.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn282/drewross/DSC_0004.jpg

Before I knew better, I bought a mic for the harp for the Champ. I bought a
Shure Green Bullet 520B. It is one of the low impedance types, and I now
know harp players prefer the high Z. I haven't figured out what year it is,
but it is the CM (controlled magnetic) type. From reading the harp-l archive
and elsewhere, I can put on an adaptor or use an overdrive. I'm going to
start with a relatively clean guitar overdrive and see how it sounds.

That's longer than I had hoped ... from nothing to a novel!

Aloha!